Thursday, January 13, 2005

Whose freedom is it, anyway?

The Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal have released their 11th "Index of Economic Freedom." The media hook is that the United States "for the first time ever no longer ranks among the top 10 'free' nations of the world." Topping the list is Hong Kong, China's "free port," whose citizens do not even enjoy the measure of freedom they had under British colonial rule. ("Red China" is red now only in the sense that Mississippi is a "red" state.)

The index "measures 161 countries against a list of 50 independent variables divided into 10 broad factors of economic freedom." The degree of freedom a country enjoys is determined by the "level of government interference in the economy."

In other words, the freedom under discussion bears little relation to freedom - even economic freedom - as understood by most of the peoples of the world, because it has nothing to do with people. It's corporate freedom, and the freedom of capital, that is at issue. This is the kind of bizarro-world reasoning that sees nothing amiss with American corporations having the right of personhood under the law.

The study offers no consideration that unfettered capital may be a bad thing. Nor that governments - even representative governments, as conventionally understood - ought to act as a counterweight to corporate power. In other words, Heaven for the Heritage Foundation would be Grover Norquist's lucid dream of a government so small it can be drowned in the bathtub.

Again, Venezuela is judged "repressed" under President Hugo Chavez, who "tightened his grip" on the country by victory in a referendum the dafters of the report can't bring themselves to admit was fair. Bolivarian land reform persecutes the idle foreign barons such as "Lord Spam," while the fact that unemployment is the lowest it's been in nearly a decade does not deserve a mention. Yet Chavez does get spanked for "appropriating" billions of dollars in oil revenue to "fund social programs."

Cuba, of course, is an even worse offender. While the report allows that "private entrepreneurship exists," it remains, heaven forfend, "heavily regulated." That Cuba now has a lower infant mortality rate than the United States - fewer than four deaths per thousand, compared to seven - is not a factor, because lives are not a factor in the consideration of the health of capital.

"Economic freedom" for much of the world means freedom from poverty; freedom to work and to earn a living wage; freedom from the burden of crushing medical expenses. To the Heritage Foundation and the Wall Street Journal, we may as well be talking about the freedom to float in mid-air, it makes as much sense to them.

812 Comments:

This index is nothing more than a handy reference for those that want to do foreign investments. It is interesting nonetheless as an insight into how New York sees the world. In particular, how it sees the penetration of neo-liberal trade policies and its effect on politics.

The left column comprises mostly the west (europe (sans greece), us, canada, etc), countries that could exploit the trade posibilities created. They have formed economic and military alliances.

The right column comprises two different groups; there are the sufferers (argentina, venezuela, cuba, russia, nigeria, etc) and the exploiters (china, india). This group, in one form or another, have rejected the neo-liberal policy. Brazil is heading fast toward this group since "Luiz Inacio “Lula” da Silva, who became president on a predominantly leftist platform, further undermined growth" in recent years. As we know, this group (except nigeria which is a very very special case) are forming economic and miltary alliances.

The battleground is the middle column. Some of these have significant resources or access to resources (georgia, ukraine, kyrgyz, azerbaijan, etc) or just basket cases. These counries will be courted/coerced over the next decade, expect to see more "orange revolutions" and the like in these countries.

There is a host of significant countries that it is hard to say where they belong. These include indonesia, nigeria, vietnam, and mexico. I include mexico in spite of NAFTA. Each of these have the potential to be powerhouses, and hence there is an incentive to keep the depressed.

I recently found an interesting study which analyzes the position of op-eds in large newspapers regarding free trade.

One statistically significant observation is that between the summits of Seattle and Quebec the percentage of op-eds supporting free trade rose sharply. That free trade has exclusivley positive effects seems to be a consensus.

Gandalf: very interesting citation, it certainly leads credance to the impression that ALL media in america collude on the "ship of state".

But the rest of the world is a different matter. I take the following paragraph from the conclusions to hint that there are stormy seas ahead: "With the global economy at a crossroads, those who would benefit most from the expansion of free trade and foreign investment are understandably concerned. What at first seemed like an isolated event in Seattle has exploded into an international social movement advocating fundamental change to the rules of the global economy — a message that has international populist resonance, as reflected in the recent election of Workers’ Party leader Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva to the Brazilian presidency (Lula has been extremely critical of the “Free Trade Area of the Americas” and the impact of international financial institutions). Although international trade regimes and institutions within the global economic system appear to be stable, elites may worry that if legitimacy or consensus weakens, it may only be a matter of time before the regimes and perhaps even the institutionsthemselves begin to unravel."

Counsel from elders seems to be a lost treasure. Lost are lessons learned that may contain pearls of wisdom that could have benefited the seeker. Having survived my share of hazardous crossings, I am pleased to be able to share a thought or two. The main lesson is to keep on learning. Read and seek out other points of view like visiting your blog. Finding what is ultimately important has lead me to appreciate actuality, efficiency and mindfulness. Helping others to see some of the forest through the trees is a rewarding benefit of age and maturity. mindfulness

Whenever a feeling of aversion comes into the heart of a good soul,
it's not without significance.
Consider that intuitive wisdom to be a Divine attribute,
not a vain suspicion:
the light of the heart has apprehendedintuitively from the Universal Tablet. - Rumi